The present invention relates to personal identification badges and visitor access control to facilities. More particularly, the present invention related to personal identification badges and visitor access control to facilities for visitors requiring temporary access to such facilities.
It is a common practice to issue identification badges to employees at facilities such as hospital or other healthcare facilities, office buildings, factories and the like. In the past, temporary badges, typically in the form of printed paper badges were used, wherein the badges were obtained either at a manned station at the building entrance or via an unmanned kiosk at the building entrance that provides a badge after relevant information is input. The badges often are imprinted with a photograph and the name of the visitor and are typically worn by the visitor so as to be visible by others.
If a manned station is used, a visitor is typically received and processed by a receptionist that greets the visitors and provides him or her with a temporary badge. The receptionist typically queries the visitor about the purpose of their visit, examines and validates the visitor's credentials to establish identity and other required documents for entry, establishes the visitor's status and decides to allow or disallow the visit.
Such healthcare facilities often require contractors, temporary staff, volunteers, and other to require access to the facilities at certain times. Some may require facility access for only one day while others may work at the facility for one or more weeks. In the past, when such workers finished a job, the badge is surrendered or the badge is dated, so that the person no longer may access the facility.
It would be beneficial to have a badge and visitor access system that is smart phone application based, where any documentation required for the visit is entered through the smart phone application (and periodically updated if necessary) at an initial system enrollment, and where more limited information is required prior to a visit to the facility, such that no receptionist performing such functions is required.
It would also be beneficial to provide a badge and visitor access system where there is no requirement for physical hardware to be present at the facility. Therefore, local Wi-Fi connection issues are minimized, and hardware issues such as faulty badge printers and keyboards are also minimized.
Finally, it would be beneficial to have all visitors pre-badged and pre-approved prior to entry at the facility.
All references cited herein are incorporated herein by reference in their entireties.